Short description
The Bang-Bang Club was a group of four young photographers, friends and colleagues, Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, who covered the last years of apartheid. This title tells their stories, - the stresses, tensions and moral dilemmas of working in situations of extreme violence - and the story of the end of apartheid.
Long description
The Bang-Bang Club was a group of four young war photographers, friends and colleagues: Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, war correspondants during the last years of apartheid, who took many of the photographs that encapsulate the final violent years of racist white South Africa. Two of them won Pulitzer Prizes for individual photos. Ken, the oldest and a mentor to the others, died, accidentally shot while working; Kevin, the most troubled of the four, committed suicide weeks after winning his Pulitzer for a photograph of a starving baby in the Sudanese famine. Written by Greg and Joao, The Bang-Bang Club tells their uniquely powerful war stories. It tells the story of four remarkable young men, the stresses, tensions and moral dilemmas of working in situations of extreme violence, pain and suffering, the relationships between the four and the story of the end of apartheid. An immensely powerful, riveting and harrowing book, and an invakuable contribution to the literary genre of war photography. An eye-opening book for readers of Susan Sontag.
Review
This is the most honest account I have read of what it feels like to be a war photographer and what drives such brave, some would say reckless, individuals to risk their lives. Daily Mail A splendid book, devastating in what it reveals -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu What distinguishes this account is its honesty-. A gripping book where emotions are laid bare- [Marinovich and Silva] confront the basic ethical and moral issues which most of us rarely have to think about as we glide along in our conformable Western lives. Yorkshire Post a compelling account of what it is like to be a war correspondent in one's own country... [a] superbly told story Independent on Sunday a device of searing pain- as painful a loss of innocence as any I have read anywhere- powerful and heartbreaking- Not for the faint-hearted, and not for the beach, The Bang-Bang Club is a must, though. The Times
awards
Winner of Book Data/SAPnet Booksellers' Choice Award 2001.
Customer reviews & ratings
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Movie was bad, book is excellent
Reviewed by Marie from PE on 12 July 2012
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
I didn't enjoy the movie (although the accents weren't bad from the foreign members of the cast), but the book is definitely worth a read. I learned stuff about SA that shocked me, but that I'm glad I'm aware of now. We lived in a bubble back in apartheid days...
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The Bang Bang Club
Reviewed by Maryke from South Africa on 23 November 2012
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent
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Frightening but enlightening
Reviewed by Surms from Durban on 28 March 2007
389 of 802 people found the following review helpful:
These guys saw first-hand what was happening in our townships as well as other parts of Africa - not nice stuff but very, very gripping!
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